Bo materialized on the Borg ship and was immediately struck by how alien and humid the environment felt. There was no one in her immediate vicinity, but she heard the sounds of a struggle from around a corner, and a guttural, yet piercing battle cry. She took off at a run.
As she rounded the corner she saw B'Elanna Torres locked in combat with a drone. The half-Klingon was holding her own, and Bo saw the engineer elude an attempt from the drone to immobilize her. Then she ripped the Borg's ocular implant from its eye socket.
The captain and Seven, however, were not faring so well. Both were motionless, staring into space as the cybernetic invaders in their bodies worked furiously to augment and replace their biological systems with synthetic parts.
The captain had a metal starburst erupting on her face, and implants were peeking out from under the left sleeve of her tunic, making their way gradually up toward her hand. Her skin had taken on a markedly greenish tone, though she didn't yet resemble the full assimilated drones - she more looked like someone who had eaten a bad oyster. The drones that had subdued and assimilated the captain were standing by, seemingly on guard as the nanoprobes rapidly took over their victims.
Seven was further along in her process, and had correspondingly more implants showing. Her hair had begun to recede, and her left eye had grown the protruding ocular implant so common to the Borg drones.
Bo took all of this in with the practiced air of a fighter used to sizing up the competition and assessing the odds and strategy in a split second. Making a decision, she strode over to the Borg B'Elanna was fighting with and put her hand on its neck.
The Borg's physical strength meant that it wasn't easy for her to pull its face toward hers, but it was distracted and partially disabled by the beating B'Elanna was administering, so Bo was able to extract chi from it before it knew what was happening.
This chi was different from any other chi she'd fed upon, even during the test with Seven. There was just so much more of it. She felt it flowing into each corner of her body, her extremities tingling, and felt the familiar surge of energy that came with feeding when she wasn't injured. But there was an additional component, too, she could tell - something alien that her body rejected.
After draining the drone, she turned her head to the side and let out a cross between a cough and a belch. A stream of green light emerged from her mouth and dissipated into the humid air of the corridor.
"Bad aftertaste?" B'Elanna asked.
Bo gave her a wry look. "It's like a wet dog moved into my mouth and had puppies. Watch my back."
She moved over to the captain, who stood motionless as her body continued to grow more implants. The captain didn't stir when Bo approached her, and neither did the drone who stood nearby.
"Here goes nothing," Bo said.
The first time Bo had ever transferred chi into a person, instead of taking it from them, she was in great distress. Dyson had been assaulted by her mother, Aife, and the only thing that saved him from death was Bo's timely interruption. She had managed to revive Dyson by pushing chi into his body, as she had learned from Aife, though it had been mostly an instinctual act driven by her fear of losing him.
Since then, she had learned how to transfer chi even when she wasn't near the edge of panic.
She concentrated and found the captain's chi. It tasted to her like the chi of many humans, but also had that metallic alien taste she had encountered when draining the Borg drones. She visualized her chi like a series of ribbons, entwined them with the captain's, and began to push.
As she fed chi into the captain, she wasn't sure what exactly was happening inside the woman's body, but she could see the effects immediately. Janeway's skin lost its greenish cast, and the metal starburst on her face fell off. Her left arm shed its metal portions and the skin returned to normal.
After a few seconds, it was done. Bo cut off the flow of chi and the captain blinked.
"What the hell?" she said in a raspy voice.
Bo helped support Janeway, who staggered a bit. "We'll explain later. Right now we have to get Seven and get out of here."
B'Elanna called over from where she was struggling with the two drones who had been keeping watch over Seven and the captain, who had finally realized that something was amiss. "Quickly, too, or I'm going to end up assimilated."
Bo ran over to the Klingon's side and drained the chi from the two drones, who dropped to the floor. Again, she turned her head and coughed out some green smoke.
She heard the captain gasp, and looked over. Seven of Nine had opened her eyes. Her assimilation had progressed apace, and the drone was still recognizable as Seven, but only barely. She started to lumber toward the captain.
B'Elanna glanced down the corridor. "Whatever we do, it had better be quick. Looks like half the Collective is on their way here."
Janeway's lips thinned. "We can't bring a Borg drone aboard Voyager - especially one who knows all the ship's systems. But I won't leave Seven. You two go."
"But Captain..."
"That's an order," Janeway said, with no room in her tone for argument.
Bo made a snap decision. She ran over to Seven.
"I told you to go." the captain said in a steely tone.
"I don't take orders well," Bo said. "Buy us some time," she said to B'Elanna.
The succubus locked lips with the drone who had been Seven, but instead of pushing chi in, she drew it out.
B'Elanna understood at once, and ripped off a panel on the bulkhead, exposing wires. She quickly began to work, ripping out wires and forcing new connections. The electronics began to smoke.
The advancing drones were almost upon them.
Bo stopped draining chi, and Seven sagged into her arms. She staggered under the weight, but managed to tap her communicator badge.
"Quan! Get us out of here!"
As the drones entered the area where the women were, the connections B'Elanna had made finally overloaded. The panel and wires exploded, and the concussive wave knocked the drones back.
The transporter beam had already grabbed the Starfleet women and Bo, and they dissolved into nothingness as the room filled with sparks and fire.